Calving 2018 - Advise and Help thread

Lady Haywire

Sugarbowl wrote: »

I have a calf 4 days old - she has a weak suckle and when she walks it's looks a bit lopsided or shaky. She is in good form and sucked ok this morning. Does anyone think she has some deficiencies?

Anything like that at home would get a shot of multivit/selenium & Vit E or a syringe of thriver down the throat.

Sugarbowl

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Anything like that at home would get a shot of multivit/selenium & Vit E or a syringe of thriver down the throat.

Thanks I'll try that ðŸ‘

squinn2912

Keep a wee eye on dung as well. She probably just needs to tighten up and then you’re right. If you’re not happy then get the vet to take a look to be safe

Sugarbowl

squinn2912 wrote: »

Keep a wee eye on dung as well. She probably just needs to tighten up and then you’re right. If you’re not happy then get the vet to take a look to be safe

For scour is it? Do you think it could be something else?
I've 2 shots of vit/minerals given now.

squinn2912

Sugarbowl wrote: »

squinn2912 wrote: »

Keep a wee eye on dung as well. She probably just needs to tighten up and then you’re right. If you’re not happy then get the vet to take a look to be safe

For scour is it? Do you think it could be something else?
I've 2 shots of vit/minerals given now.

Yea I’d be wary of it and just to check she’s passing ok. We’d a wee girl that looked to be flying then she was dull of herself and a scour tablet X 2 days did the job but she
was sucking well. We’re the cows getting plenty of minerals?

Dunedin

grassroot1 wrote: »

I often think they suck just we do not see them at it,that said you are never happy till you see them sucking

That’s the beauty of the camera. Wins over a million times over moo call

squinn2912

Dunedin wrote: »

grassroot1 wrote: »

I often think they suck just we do not see them at it,that said you are never happy till you see them sucking

That’s the beauty of the camera. Wins over a million times over moo call

Definitely on the shopping list!

Sugarbowl

Getting minerals but not excessive.

She did suck this morning but poor attempt all the same. Has a bit of scour now so will put a synulox back the throat. Won't take the bottle for me either so very hard to get liquids into her. Just holds the nipple in the mouth.

Anyone got a good cure for scour? We have a couple here this year already. It's sickening to see.

High bike

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Getting minerals but not excessive.

She did suck this morning but poor attempt all the same. Has a bit of scour now so will put a synulox back the throat. Won't take the bottle for me either so very hard to get liquids into her. Just holds the nipple in the mouth.

Anyone got a good cure for scour? We have a couple here this year already. It's sickening to see.

would you not stomach tube her if she’s scouring and not drinking she’ll get dehydrated

grassroot1

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Getting minerals but not excessive.

She did suck this morning but poor attempt all the same. Has a bit of scour now so will put a synulox back the throat. Won't take the bottle for me either so very hard to get liquids into her. Just holds the nipple in the mouth.

Anyone got a good cure for scour? We have a couple here this year already. It's sickening to see.

Has her bvd test result returned yet?

charolais0153

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Getting minerals but not excessive.

She did suck this morning but poor attempt all the same. Has a bit of scour now so will put a synulox back the throat. Won't take the bottle for me either so very hard to get liquids into her. Just holds the nipple in the mouth.

Anyone got a good cure for scour? We have a couple here this year already. It's sickening to see.

Might be just a stupid one. Keep them going for a week or so and they usually get the hang of it eventually.its vital that he doesnt get dehydrated tho so tube him or something

Sugarbowl

Don't get me wrong - he's sucking, just not like the other calves. He gives up faster than the others his age. Got a litre of water with a sachet into him during the day. Will see how tonight goes now.

Angus2018

2 days of hardship here trying to look after that premature calf but eventually got it up and suckling the mother after having it under a heat lamp and bottling it. It's stick thin and gets cold easy so wrapped it up in a dog jacket since the regular calf ones are too big. Should survive now!

Lady Haywire

Angus2018 wrote: »

2 days of hardship here trying to look after that premature calf but eventually got it up and suckling the mother after having it under a heat lamp and bottling it. It's stick thin and gets cold easy so wrapped it up in a dog jacket since the regular calf ones are too big. Should survive now!

I learned the hard way to never count them as survivors until they get past their supposed due date

whelan2

Calved a cow there now. Absolute monster of an angus bull. Cow never gets down to calving. Under some pressure with the jack. Big fat fook of a cow. 3 years in a row same calving with her.

Angus2018

Lady Haywire wrote: »

I learned the hard way to never count them as survivors until they get past their supposed due date

I know that the hard way, had a cow calve a small calf, a little premature so bottled it and eventually got it suckling. Very slow to move and do anything but was ok so I let it out to the field. I was looking at it a few days later thinking I'd never seen it run, right in front of me it took a few steps and then just fell down and that was it. Off to the lab and it turned out it had heart failure and was a miracle it even survived out of the womb, should have been dead on birth.

Premature calf is doing well, bouncing around the pen, mother doesn't have enough milk so I have it on milk replacer too, going to up the feed today since there are no signs of digestive problems.

Lady Haywire

Angus2018 wrote: »

I know that the hard way, had a cow calve a small calf, a little premature so bottled it and eventually got it suckling. Very slow to move and do anything but was ok so I let it out to the field. I was looking at it a few days later thinking I'd never seen it run, right in front of me it took a few steps and then just fell down and that was it. Off to the lab and it turned out it had heart failure and was a miracle it even survived out of the womb, should have been dead on birth.

Premature calf is doing well, bouncing around the pen, mother doesn't have enough milk so I have it on milk replacer too, going to up the feed today since there are no signs of digestive problems.

That's good to hear! Mine dropped dead with a heart murmur just at its proper due date, think it was about a month old by then.

squinn2912

Had a cow calves 3 days ago lovely heifer calf. Next night I was giving the weanlings their meal and I said I’d give the calves girls a wee chip and she didn’t get up. My dad landed and I asked him how she was all day he reckoned fine. I put her up and she sniffed about. We left it like that. Bad mistake the next morning she was lying out with fellen and the vet measured her at 107 degrees. She’s feeding again yesterday and looking for the calf but it’s as close as you could come. My motto is that it’s better to overreact but I abandoned it this time lucky didn’t lose the cow

tanko

Have you got your own thermometer?
Its a very useful thing to have.

squinn2912

That would be a great addition!

Lady Haywire

I stole the one from the house :D

tanko

The digital one is a great job, very easy to use.

whelan2

Cant wait for calving to be over

squinn2912

I Know it’ll be a relief. Will be easier from here on in I think though.

Lady Haywire

Have a wee break for a while here, all calved & nothing due til next week. All my worrisome cows are due at the start of May so will be switching them into the one pen & put on hay & oats & minerals for 6 weeks if I can.

Angus2018

Break here for about 8-10 days and then back in hard. Will be finished in 7 weeks time, few heifers dragging out the season. I don't really mind since the farm looks worse than when I closed it before housing.

squinn2912

Bit of a break here too or at least they’ve slowed. Heifers/second calvers stretching the season but the bull is out with replacements now so next year we should be tightened up... at the expense of AI. Synchronizing didn’t work great for us so if anything I think you’re better with the early calf and get a shot of estrumate into some cows for AI instead of heifers. Am I making any sense?

Who2

squinn2912 wrote: »

Bit of a break here too or at least they’ve slowed. Heifers/second calvers stretching the season but the bull is out with replacements now so next year we should be tightened up... at the expense of AI. Synchronizing didn’t work great for us so if anything I think you’re better with the early calf and get a shot of estrumate into some cows for AI instead of heifers. Am I making any sense?

It’ll be far from tight next year if you have the bull out now. By the time you have the last calves, bulled you’ll be fairly spread. You’ve hope for the next year if you hold the bull back.

antrimite

antrimite wrote: »

First post on here, great reading all the stories.

Had our first casualty at the weekend, first calver had a lovely APZ heifer calf which needed a slight pull, nothing major, calf never got up and died shortly after it came out at 282 days gestation. Was no airways problems or long labour. A mystery to us. Disappointing as she would have been a lovely replacment down the line. Batch of 3 heifers more calving any day to APZ so hoping for incident free labours!

Have seen a plenty of posts on here re: calves not wanting to suck, must definitely be a Simmental thing as we would have plenty every year who get up and nose around the teats but never latch on, have had plenty of kicks for my troubles! Seems to be the bigger calves that always have issues with

2 more APZ bull calves on the ground from first Calvers. First one calves at 288 days on her own inside an hour, calf came out as easy as I ever seen. She’s our best heifer so would have liked a heifer but he’s thriving well. The next calf came with aid of the calving jack. Feet came but no progress iber an hour so we gave her help. Big lump of a bull calf. 290days! One last heifer to go. A month ago we questioned whether she was still in Calf and now at 294 days!!

On a worse note our stock bull (the afore mentioned heifers sire), has went down with TB. Disaster

Who2

antrimite wrote: »

2 more APZ bull calves on the ground from first Calvers. First one calves at 288 days on her own inside an hour, calf came out as easy as I ever seen. She’s our best heifer so would have liked a heifer but he’s thriving well. The next calf came with aid of the calving jack. Feet came but no progress iber an hour so we gave her help. Big lump of a bull calf. 290days! One last heifer to go. A month ago we questioned whether she was still in Calf and now at 294 days!!

On a worse note our stock bull (the afore mentioned heifers sire), has went down with TB. Disaster

Awful to say but your lucky you got bulls. Apz progeny are a disaster to calve, I’d say the worst pelvises out there. I wouldn’t let him around the place and there’s plenty that have had the same issue.